Environmental strategy

Tower Hamlets Council’s environmental strategy (pdf 122k) and action plan (pdf 174k) were officially adopted by cabinet in June 2007. They set out our vision for improving the environmental performance of the council.

They identify the environmental initiatives which need to be undertaken in order to minimise our impact on the environment and what outcomes we expect to achieve as a result. Ultimately, the council seeks to efficiently undertake its statutory duties with the minimum of environmental impact.

Work undertaken to date has identified a number of issues where we have a significant environmental impact as a council. These are:

Transport

Energy management

Water management

Waste management

Procurement

Our vision is to become a council with progressively lower environmental impacts and which sets an excellent example of leadership in environmental good practice to the community.

Why develop an environmental strategy?

The need to protect, promote and improve the quality of our environment has become increasingly important in recent years. Many of the natural resources that we rely upon (clean air, water and food) are under threat from pollution, overuse and poor management. We often take these resources for granted. Additionally the threat from climate change requires that we take action now.

The council's looked to set the benchmark in the way it manages its own environmental performance, and in the way it plans and delivers services. This strategy is not intended for the whole community, but is specific to the management of the council itself. The vision is concerned with things that the council can control and influence.

This environment strategy (pdf 122k) and action plan (pdf 174k) have been produced as the basis for development of a co-ordinated programme of work to improve our own environmental performance, which in turn, affects how we deliver services to the people who live, work and travel through our borough.